How do you solve a problem like Madonna? Not, it seems, by marrying her for eight years and trying to control where she lives and who she adopts. The Madonna/Guy Ritchie divorce announcement was hardly a surprise, given the miserable photographs of the two of them at the release of his latest film last month.

But the break-up is intriguing for the fact that Ritchie was billed as the man who tamed the Queen of Pop – but now looks as though he's the one who has come out of the marriage having lost himself.

Madonna initially said she fell for him because he stood up to her and gave as good as he got. It's funny how the traits that most attract us at the start of a relationship are often the undoing of the whole thing at the end. It's claimed that they finally parted ways when he wouldn't agree to adopt another child from Malawi and told her he wasn't moving to New York under any circumstances.

His reported statement to a British tabloid that his marriage had become a "circus", and that Madonna's obsession with her public image had pushed it over the edge, smacks of bitterness. And why wouldn't he be bitter? When they met, he was the filmmaker touted as 'Britain's answer to Quentin Tarantino' – but once he married a superstar, the whole thing went to pot. Ritchie's earlier successes have now been eclipsed by a lengthy series of flops and he has become more famous for trotting behind Madonna's ridiculously toned behind.

It could be argued that he is just not a good film director and only time will tell whether Ritchie really has the talent to deliver on his earlier promise – but today it certainly looks as though he was the losing partner in a battle for supremacy where Madonna ultimately became the boss.

The power struggle within a power couple is not a new phenomenon. Nicole Kidman blossomed after her escape from Tom Cruise, who has now found a new wife to steer through life.

An outside observer could also be forgiven for seeing Angelina Jolie as the CEO of her relationship with Brad Pitt. Her mission is to accumulate as many children as possible and she had already started the project before she met Pitt. He has rocked along with the plan but has lost some of his star appeal as he makes up the numbers in her family. She, meanwhile, is more powerful now than she ever was before they got together.

Such obvious connotations of the conqueror and the vanquished can't be without its consequences – look at pictures of an increasingly miserable Katie Holmes for evidence.

Madonna is free now to rule the world again and go to Malawi and pick up a sister for her adopted son without the hindrance of a husband who doesn't agree. He may rescue his career and return from emasculation to some semblance of being in control again.

It all goes to prove that, in most cases, you just can't win when you take on the boss.